Saturday, March 22, 2014

Not only is red my favourite colour (alongside black) but ruby is my favourite hue of red, so of course, when I signed up for the Hues of Oz challenge, the ruby slippers were my inspiration. Instead of ruby slippers and a little dog named Toto in the land of Oz though, I've created a little cat named Ruby in a graveyard... as is my wont. ;)

Whilst you're mingling, you may run into the spooktacular Holly, of Holly's Horrorland. Holly hosted a red themed creative challenge earlier this week and I had been busy working on a little doll in red that I was very excited about (Hint: Her name is Lydia.), but alas, just as she was almost finished, a careless slip of the Quickunpic resulted in me inadvertently and tragically eviscerating her.

Much colourful language and a slew of self-pitying, melodramatic declarations followed in the wake of this calamitous event. Dolly requires a complete body transplant, which requires much disassembly and reassembly, and as I just didn't have time to finish her this week, I'm cheating and having Ruby stand in for both challenges. So, after attending the Hues of Oz gathering, hop over to Holly's March Creative Challenge and keep the festivities going.

Friday, March 7, 2014

The lovely Yvonne, of Winter Moon blog, has passed along the Sunshine blogger award to me.

Of course, me being me, I'll have to break the rules, the first of which is to nominate 11 bloggers to pass the award onto. As some of you may already have been nominated, or perhaps don't have the time or inclination to participate, simply consider yourself nominated if you would like to join in.

I'm also supposed to state 11 facts about myself...

After almost 3 years of blogging, this is not the first time I've been asked to list some personal trivia, so the well has pretty much run dry on interesting facts, if indeed I ever provided any at all, so I apologize in advance for what follows. I feel compelled to suggest that you might want to run now... save yourself... while you can!

1. I'm a tad obsessive.
And when I say, "a tad", I mean, "extremely". I will shamelessly wallow in and enthuse over things I like until the proverbial cows come home... and then, once the cows are fed and tucked up in their barn, I'll just keep right on wallowing and enthusing.

For example, I'm currently finding it hard to let go of the Vampire's Day Soiree and the subject of my post, television show Moonlight. I re-watched the series with my family in anticipation of the soiree... and now I'm making them re-watch it all over again. (It's lucky my husband and son tolerate my little ways.) The photo at the top of this post is of Moonlight vampire, Mick St. John, shielding his eyes from the dawn light. Yep, I was determined to find some way to jam a vamp into a Sunshine award post!

2. I love cats!

Phoebe with Skellie

I am a cat-person, and given the right conditions, would absolutely be a Crazy Cat Lady. I adore them because they are smart, funny, furry, beautiful, affectionate (I've had many cats, and while they've all had different personalities, they were always loving in their own ways), and purring is one of my favourite sounds in the whole world; there's a primal comfort to it.

Cats also fascinate me. They have such a rich history and mythology surrounding them. They were revered in Ancient Egypt and reviled in Medieval Europe. They have been regarded as bringers of either good or bad luck, depending upon cultural and religious traditions, and they have had supernatural abilities attributed to them, like having multiple lives, or augmenting the powers of witches by acting as familiars. And let's not forget the awesome Catwoman!

3. Just because I love cats doesn't mean I don't love dogs.

I grew up with both cats and dogs, and I miss my beloved childhood dogs dearly. My last pet dog was Sophie, back when I was still living at home with my parents. She is pictured here acting as Flower Dog when I got married.

4. A dog once saved my life.
I'm Australian but I was born in Papua New Guinea. My family lived in Port Moresby (until I was 3) while my father was working there as a Crown Prosecutor for the Australian government. One afternoon, when I was a baby, my mother was sitting with me in the living room of our house when a man slipped in through a window and crept up behind her with a large knife. The family dog, Princess (a Queensland Blue Heeler), who had been asleep at my mother's feet, awoke and launched at the intruder, attacking him until he was forced to escape back out the window.

5. I'm an unapologetic Homebody.
Or a "caver" as my son (affectionately?) refers to me. I've done my fair share of travelling, but home is my sanctuary. As long as I've got husband, son, cat, books, TV, DVDs, internet, coffee, wine, and chocolate... *happy sigh*

6. I have no interest in sport.

Neither playing nor watching it. I'll sometimes sit with my husband and son when the World Cup Soccer is on, but that's usually more about perving on the Italian national team.

As with most things, The Addams Family exemplifies my ideal concept of sporting fun and as soon as I acquire a gothic mansion, I intend to take up fencing, and play Badminton in my living room, in true Addams style.

7. I'm not good with clutter, not even beautiful clutter.
It's a psychological thing. It overwhelms me and as I move house reasonably frequently, I think the task of packing and transporting everything is ever present in the back of my mind. I love baroque and ornate details, but juxtaposed with clean lines and space. I'm sure I've also been influenced by growing up on a diet of sixties TV reruns, Hammer Horrors and Charles Addams cartoons, in all of which, anything gothic was filtered through a Mid-Century Modern lens.

8. I'm a nervous driver.
About 7 years ago, my husband, son and I were driving home, after visiting my mother in hospital, on a miserable, rainy night, and we ended up sandwiched in the middle of a multi-car pileup on a freeway. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt (just cuts and bruises), even though the car was completely totalled. I'm fine driving locally, but I hate driving outside (literally) my comfort zone, and freeways give me anxiety now. I wish it wasn't the case, but it is.

9. I love TV and movie soundtracks.
Remember how I said I was a tad obsessive? Well, what better way to wallow in a favourite TV show or movie than listening to the soundtrack over and over and over. Supernatural, Moonlight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Lost Boys, Beetlejuice, Dark Shadows... to name just a handful. I even have the 1958 soundtrack for Bell, Book and Candle.

10. My favourite television shows currently on air are:Arrow, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural and The Walking Dead.

11. Neil Gaiman's, The Graveyard Book, set me on a new path.

I adored The Graveyard Book and was completely captivated by Neil Gaiman's beautiful and sometimes melancholy imagery, like ghost children playing amongst the tombstones of a graveyard. In fact, I was so inspired, I ended up designing and making my own ghostly, little dolls. This in turn led to the revelation that I could further indulge my interest in all things dark and spooky by starting a blog.... and so we come full circle... back to obsession, wallowing and enthusing.

Hmm... reading back through this post, it would appear that even if my facts aren't especially interesting, they certainly seem to reveal a smattering of mental health issues.

Thank you again to Winter Moon for illuminating my shadowy corner of Blogland with a little Sunshine!

About Me

Hi, my name is Emma and I live in Australia with my husband, my son, and a little cat called Phoebe. I am smitten with the groovy, the gothic, the spooky, Halloween, superheroes, and cats. I make and draw. You can find me on Instagram as @littlegothichorrors, or my personal account @groovygothic.

I don't do reviews or sponsored posts. Anything I enthuse about here is already a personal favourite or something wonderful I've simply stumbled upon.

Copyright

Any text or images that are not mine remain the property of their respective owners and no copyright infringement is intended or should be inferred. All other content on this blog belongs to me, including the frame artwork and the design of the Little Gothic Horrors dolls.